We Dont Sell Blocks Exploring Minecrafts Commissioning Market

In recent years, we have experienced the proliferation of videogames that have, as their main method of play, the creation of in-game content. While there is literature that has studied a variety of aspects of these games, it is vital to examine the potential monetisation practices that may emerge from their context. Through our ongoing ethnographic research we discovered the market for commissions that is thriving within the Minecraft community of creators. Dk's blog Our findings reveal three principal players in this market: the customers, who are the owners of Minecraft servers and the contractors who manage the client's requests for Minecraft maps and the builders who are responsible for the creation of said maps. Our research has revealed that the commodity at play is not the game's in-game content, as one would expect, but the service of creating this content. The findings suggest that the Minecraft structure currently in place is influenced by commissioning, a well-organised process initiated and sustained only by the community that plays the game. They also challenge the idea that the creation of content in gaming environments is a free labor that is only exploited by the game's developers.